Assessing the concept of “urban metabolism” from an epistemological and interdisciplinary perspective From analogy to generalization?

Bertoldi, Nicola;Perrotti, Daniela;Rosa, Elisabetta cinzia
(2023) ISHPSSB 2023 International Society for the History Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology biennial meeting — Location: Toronto (9.July.2023)

Files

ISHPSSB_2023.pdf
  • Open Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 9.38 MB
Download

Details

Authors
Abstract
Complex processes and interactions between living organisms and their environment place particular modelling constraints on researchers in the life and environmental sciences. Indeed, differences in temporal and geographical scales, on the one hand, and differences in levels of integration, on the other hand, among the phenomena in question make it harder to identify possible common causal processes at work (May 1973; Haldane 2011; Parrot 2010). In this symposium, we wish to question how analogical reasoning is used or misused to address precisely such a problem in different fields of the life and environmental sciences, notably in urban ecology (Bertoldi N.), historical biogeography (Korniliou A.), and conservation biology (Haas S.). Generally speaking, reasoning by analogy allows making inferences from the known to the less known, based on the assumption that the source domain and the target domain of the analogy are similar in some relevant and salient respects. Our contributions rely on philosophical analyses of the structure and epistemic functions of analogical reasoning, especially Hesse’s (1966), to question how analogical arguments are deployed in the various case studies we address. In particular, we focus on the kinds of similarity between source and target domains that such arguments presuppose: material similarity, i.e., the similarity between the causal processes underlying the two domains, or formal similarity, i.e., the similarity in how objects and properties in both domains are represented. Furthermore, the similarities and differences between analogies and generalizations qua distinct forms of inferential reasoning constitute other topics discussed in some of our contributions.
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Bertoldi, N., Perrotti, D., & Rosa, E. c. (2023). Assessing the concept of “urban metabolism” from an epistemological and interdisciplinary perspective From analogy to generalization? ISHPSSB 2023 International Society for the History Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology biennial meeting, Toronto. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/269312